> > In other words, the people on Napster-like 
> > services are more likely the heavy music buyers

> I don't think this is true, most of the people I've talked to who
> download lots, want top 40 hits to burn to cd for their car (because the
> radio is only playing the song once an hour). 

Both types exist, but I don't think either type is causing *that* much of a problem for the music industry. I 
download a lot of music, mostly bootlegs or out-of-print stuff, although not exclusively but I also buy a lot, and I 
think that's true of most people on all the P2P services except Kazaa. For those people, downloading doesn't 
affect their purchasing - in my case I *couldn't* spend more money on music than I do, and I know many people 
for whom that's true - and in many cases might point people to new artists to try. Half the CDs I've bought over 
the last few years have been from people who I downloaded first.

The second type almost certainly wouldn't be buying CDs anyway, and they're the ones using Kazaa and being 
targeted by the RIAA on the assumption that any copy of a Britney Spears track downloaded is a sale lost.

The people who the RIAA *should* be worried about probably at the moment make up a very small minority of P2P 
users, but they're the casual fans, the people who might buy five or six CDs a year normally, but who will 
download instead. At the moment it's still (just) easier for those people to buy the CDs, but that won't remain 
the case for long...

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